8 replies to this topic

[Uno]

Just a short one I've never read before....


Music: WHINE AND SONG; AMY WINEHOUSE HITS OUT AT GIRL SINGERS AND WHY SHE'S ONE OF THE VERY BEST.

Byline: Gavin Martin


Amy Winehouse is the elegant 22-year-old pot-smoking Camden jazz singer with the sharp tongue. Her Brit and Mercury-nominated debut album Frank blends classy vocals and hip-hop beats, but recently she's been more famous for putdowns of contemporaries such as Katie Melua and Dido.

Today, in a South London rehearsal studio preparing for her forthcoming tour, she is trying to be more diplomatic.

"When you make comments and are honest, you don't expect them to be put together and made a big thing of," she explains. "I have strong opinions about music but my nan said to me, 'You're a lovely gel, but people read things like that and they don't know you and get the wrong impression'."

There are, however, questions, you can't resist asking. Dido, for instance. She's not as good a singer as you, is she?

"She can sing her songs in tune, but if your songs are s*** it doesn't matter."

Has Katie Melua done as much as you to further the art of jazz singing? "I don't think she is a jazz singer. I've never met her, but I have stood next to her - she's weenie. It was at the Brits and she was going, 'I feel very privileged da dah...' And I'm shouting away and I just thought, 'There is a big difference between us'."

With her big voice and no-holds-barred songs, Amy Winehouse is certainly different to other strong-minded female musicians. Where her rivals have made a point of keeping clothes on, Amy rebelled against being told to cover up.

"For the In My Bed video, I had a little tiny pink D&G dress on, and the woman at the record company handed me a long, knee-length red dress. I was like, 'No, no, no, dear. I can't even walk in this dress. I always wear what I want to wear'. They say things like, 'You have a Radio 2 audience and the grans and grandpas might not think you're a lovely girl if you wear that dress'.

"Well, you know what? Everyone's lovely gran and lovely granddad has had a life. They know what life is about. I don't think they care what I wear."

Raised in the genteel North London suburb of Southgate with her older brother, Alex, Amy's mother, a pharmacist, and her taxi driver father, separated when she was nine. At the famous Sylvia Young Theatre School, she was classmates with Billie Piper and Matt from Busted but was expelled. She was working as a showbiz journalist when Island records snapped up her demo tape. Although currently without a partner, she has had a chequered love life.

"I just liked boys, men, and I still do," she admits. "I have four close girlfriends and the rest of my friends are all boys. I do find girls so beautiful, though.

"I don't have a boyfriend right now. If I had, I don't know if I could give him everything he deserves because I'm so busy. But there are good-looking men everywhere." Unfortunately it was a member of a band not noted for their pin-up status that recently got in touch.

"One of Goldie Lookin' Chain rang me up," she reveals. "But it wasn't the one that I thought was cute, so I left that.

"There's a knocking shop across the road from where I live, so sometimes I have to go there - because I'm really a man and my gender reassignment is next Thursday," she laughs.

Her other big love is marijuana - and lots of it.

"I have smoked an ounce a week at times," she admits. "When I smoke, I am just the happy me. I sing or whistle for three hours or go up and play guitar for four hours. I like a drink. I love all different kinds of alcohol and, everywhere I go, I'll find a drink I like. But I am more of a smoker. All my inhibitions go, so it's great to write when I'm stoned."

Amy is as honest about her own talents as she is about her rivals.

"I can sing better onstage than on record," she says. "If you see me, I'll do crazy stuff that will get your hair standing up. I don't pride myself on being technically perfect. I'm a feeling singer, but if I crack I will always come back."


http://www.thefreeli......-a0124119035

[amylove]

Thank you for this!! She was so honest it's unreal!
I always thought she displayed a fearlessness with her voice early in her career... it seems that last statement proves that.

It's crazy they wanted her to wear a more conservative dress for In My Bed to appeal to an older audience considering what that song's about... I mean just because she had a jazz influence only old people would like her? just weird..

Edited by allisost, 29 August 2012 - 06:09 AM.

[LRock10288]

Great interview!! Thanks for posting it!!

[Mrs. Jones]

Nice one, thank you!

[ancre]

They say things like, 'You have a Radio 2 audience and the grans and grandpas might not think you're a lovely girl if you wear that dress'.

"Well, you know what? Everyone's lovely gran and lovely granddad has had a life. They know what life is about. I don't think they care what I wear."

That's good! Thank you for this find.

[ladyamy]

Our lovely girl, she's so amazing, isn't she? She was a little bit too honest, though. It was alright in the Frank days, when she was stronger but in the Back To Black, when she was more vulnerable, journalists took advantage of her honesty and wrote some cruel things about her.

[amylove]

I think they got her age wrong... if it was Nov 2004 she would be 21, right?

[Ace of Hearts]

"One of Goldie Lookin' Chain rang me up," she reveals. "But it wasn't the one that I thought was cute, so I left that.

"There's a knocking shop across the road from where I live, so sometimes I have to go there - because I'm really a man and my gender reassignment is next Thursday," she laughs.

BWAHAHAHHAHAHAAHA! So funny!

[gpozzo]

"I don't pride myself on being technically perfect."

Amy, is that you? lol I guess we're not quite used to see Amy so confident about herself like that.

Great interview! Thanks a lot, [MENTION=2280]Uno[/MENTION]!